StockNews.com Downgrades ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) to Hold

StockNews.com cut shares of ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Friday morning.

ePlus Stock Down 2.3 %

Shares of PLUS opened at $78.62 on Friday. ePlus has a 52 week low of $56.33 and a 52 week high of $106.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $95.08 and a 200-day simple moving average of $86.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a current ratio of 1.85.

Insider Activity at ePlus

In other ePlus news, CFO Elaine D. Marion sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.19, for a total value of $460,950.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 64,442 shares in the company, valued at $5,940,907.98. This represents a 7.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ePlus

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in ePlus by 19.8% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,387,899 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $136,486,000 after purchasing an additional 229,837 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in ePlus by 70.9% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,117,812 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $109,926,000 after buying an additional 463,621 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in ePlus by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,021,341 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $100,439,000 after acquiring an additional 6,241 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in ePlus by 20.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 968,998 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $95,291,000 after acquiring an additional 164,016 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of ePlus by 16.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 731,909 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $71,987,000 after acquiring an additional 105,526 shares during the last quarter. 93.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

ePlus Company Profile

ePlus inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides information technology (IT) solutions that enable organizations to optimize their IT environment and supply chain processes in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, Technology and Financing. The Technology segment offers hardware, perpetual and subscription software, maintenance, software assurance, and internally provided and outsourced services; managed services or infrastructure and cloud; and enhanced maintenance support, service desk, storage-as-a-service, cloud hosted and managed, and managed security services; and professional, staff augmentation, cloud consulting, consulting, and security services.